Use of antibiotics in farming ‘endangering human immune system’
Study suggests antimicrobial used to promote livestock growth breeds bacteria more resistant to our natural defencesThe blanket use of antibiotics in farming has led to the emergence of bacteria that are more resistant to the human immune system, scientists have warned.The research suggests that the antimicrobial colistin, which was used for decades as a growth promoter on pig and chicken farms in China, resulted in the emergence ofEcoli strains that are more likely to evade our immune system ’s first line of defence.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 25, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Hannah Devlin Science correspondent Tags: Antibiotics Agriculture Farming Environment Science Health Immunology Biochemistry and molecular biology Medical research UK news Source Type: news
How to eat MORE and still burn fat: New book by top biochemist gives vital health advice
When I created the Glucose Goddess Method, I never envisioned it as a weight loss diet. However, after running a pilot experiment last year, more than 1,000 people lost weight trying the Method. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - April 15, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
No kittens required: Scientists find new way to study toxoplasmosis parasite in lab
One of the most widespread parasites on the planet can also be one of the most difficult to study.
Toxoplasma gondii
—a single-celled protozoan—is capable of infecting almost every mammal and bird species,
including humans
, and in severe cases causes blindness, birth defects, and death. Yet it only sexually reproduces inside the intestines of domestic cats and other members of the Felidae family, prompting controversial studies on kittens.
Now, a research team has come up with a technique that uses gene editing of
Toxoplasma
to push the parasite toward sexu...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 31, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Q & A: Bioengineer Mireille Kamariza can ’t wait to see what’s next
When Mireille Kamariza joined theUCLA Samueli School of Engineering as an assistant professor of bioengineering in January, she brought with her an early record of innovation.Just a decade after earning her undergraduate degree at UC San Diego, Kamariza has already developed a potential point-of-care diagnostic test for tuberculosis. TB is the world ’s second-deadliest infectious disease, behind COVID-19, and still a serious burden in low-income countries.In the late 2010s, as a doctoral fellow at Stanford University, Kamariza and colleagues designed a system with a fluorescent “reporter” molecule attached to a sugar...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 23, 2023 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Compact x-ray laser would shrink billion-dollar machines to the size of a room
When the first x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) opened in 2009 at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, it provided a new way to look at the atomic-scale world, revealing details about biochemical processes such as photosynthesis and exotic materials such as superconductors. But since then, only four other such billion-dollar facilities have been built worldwide, and getting time on them is difficult.
A group of researchers at Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe, now plans to build a new kind of free-electron laser, dramatically smaller and cheaper than anything that has come before. This month, ASU
...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 23, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Pall of suspicion: NIH ’s secretive ‘China initiative’ has destroyed scores of academic careers
For decades, Chinese-born U.S. faculty members were applauded for working with colleagues in China, and their universities cited the rich payoff from closer ties to the emerging scientific giant. But those institutions did an about-face after they began to receive emails in late 2018 from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The emails asked some 100 institutions to investigate allegations that one or more of their faculty had violated NIH policies designed to ensure federal funds were being spent properly. Most commonly, NIH claimed a researcher was using part of a grant to do work in China through an undis...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 23, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
One of the first people to have a transfusion of lab-grown red blood cells says: 'why wouldn ’ t you do it?'
One of the first people to be transfused with red blood cells grown in a laboratory has spoken about her experiences. (Source: University of Bristol news)
Source: University of Bristol news - March 15, 2023 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Health, International, Research; Faculty of Life Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Biochemistry; Press Release Source Type: news
Paul Berg obituary
Nobel prizewinning biochemist who was a pioneer in the field of genetic engineeringThe Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 was built on the principle of stitching together DNA from two viruses, one to enable the vaccine to enter cells and the other to provoke an immune response.In 1972 Paul Berg, who has died aged 96, became the first person to combine the DNA of two organisms in this way. Recombinant DNA has become a fundamental tool of biomedical research and drug discovery, making it possible to grow drugs such as human insulin in bacteria as well as to develop tailor-made vaccines.Continue reading... (Source: G...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 14, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Georgina Ferry Tags: Genetics Biochemistry and molecular biology Nobel prizes US news New York Science People in science Source Type: news
Paul Berg, scientific firebrand who pioneered genetic engineering, dies
Nobel Prize-winning biochemist's experiments in gene-splicing reshaped cancer research and helped spawn the biotech industry. (Source: Los Angeles Times - Science)
Source: Los Angeles Times - Science - February 22, 2023 Category: Science Authors: John Johnson Jr. Source Type: news
Paul Berg, Nobel-Winning Pioneer of Genetic Engineering, Is Dead at 96
In 1971, he transferred material from one organism to another, creating the first recombinant DNA, or rDNA. He later helped lead a historic effort to write protocols for genetic research. (Source: NYT Health)
Source: NYT Health - February 21, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Don R. Hecker Tags: Deaths (Obituaries) Berg, Paul Nobel Prizes DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) Biology and Biochemistry Stanford University Genetic Engineering Source Type: news
Epigenetic enzymes and regulation of transcription
<img width="100" src="https://factor.niehs.nih.gov/sites/niehs-factor/files/styles/large/public/2016/3/science-highlights/epigenetic/thumb781395.jpg?itok=KQzfSogD" /><br /><p>NIEHS biochemist Trevor Archer, Ph.D., discussed “Using Epigenetic Enzymes to Regulate Transcription,” in a Duke University seminar.</p>
(read more) (Source: Environmental Factor - NIEHS Newsletter)
Source: Environmental Factor - NIEHS Newsletter - February 3, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: news
The Bivalent Booster Protects Against New COVID-19 Variants, New Data Show
In this study, the bivalent booster was slightly better at generating virus-fighting antibodies than in previous studies, which found only small differences between people boosted with the original and bivalent vaccines in terms of antibodies generated against BQ.1.1 and XBB.1. (Unpublished data from these groups shows similarly small differences with XBB.1.5.) In those studies, however, blood wasn’t collected from people before and after their fourth booster dose; instead, the scientists compared blood from different groups of people who had been either boosted with the original or bivalent doses. A strength of the ...
Source: TIME: Health - January 25, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
Dr Michael Hayes, 1939-2022
Dr Michael Hayes, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry (Oral Biology) within the Department of Biochemistry, died on 22 September 2022. His colleagues Professor Dick Denton FRS and Dr John McGivan offer an appreciation. (Source: University of Bristol news)
Source: University of Bristol news - January 25, 2023 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Obituaries; Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Bristol Dental School Source Type: news
Lifting the veil: Astronomers conjure up the hazes that obscure alien worlds
In 2013, from a windowless office at the University of Chicago, Laura Kreidberg peered into the sky of a distant planet. Kreidberg, then an astronomy graduate student, parsed data from the Hubble Space Telescope, its gaze set on the exoplanet GJ1214b, roughly three times the size of Earth. GJ1214b is a popular target for astronomers seeking clues to the nature of alien worlds, and not only because it’s relatively close, a mere 48 light-years away. It also orbits its star every 1.5 days, and each lap exposes its atmosphere to inspection.
On every pass, the planet briefly eclipses a portion of the star’s face. A fr...
Source: ScienceNOW - January 11, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Tiny implantable device designed by UCLA scientists helps kill cancer
Many solid tumors resist treatment in part by turning human biology against itself. Tumors surround themselves with extra white blood cells known as regulatory T cells, which call off the body ’s natural defenses against the disease.Strategies to treat cancer by deactivating these cells risk creating other serious problems. Since regulatory T cells play an important role in safeguarding healthy tissues, diminishing them throughout the body can lead to other immune cells mistakenly attacking these tissues and causing autoimmune conditions that damage the colon, liver, heart and other organs.Now, an interdisciplinary UCLA ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 4, 2023 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
